Jenny Gill Embraces Her Famous Bloodline, But Hopes To Pave Her Own Musical Path

Jenny Gill is a firm believer in the philosophy of never knowing what someone’s answer will be to a question until it is asked. The singer was at the home of her father and step-mother, Vince Gill and Amy Grant, when Sheryl Crow just happened to stop by. She decided that moment served as a golden opportunity.

“I joked to her ‘You wanna sing on my record? We’re working on it right now,” Gill recalled for Sounds Like Nashville. Crow – one of her biggest influences – agreed, so the rockstar appears on “Lonely Lost Me,” the opening cut from Gill’s debut EP, The House Sessions. “I can say that she was on my record. That was great. One of the coolest things ever is the fact that Sheryl Crow is singing on my record.”

The House Sessions is a very eclectic disc, one that shows Gill’s wide array of influences. “It isn’t exactly one thing, which may hurt me or may help me,” she admits. “I just tried to put together a collection of my favorite songs that I had written without making it a Country or a Rock thing,” she continues, adding that she would classify the project as Singer / Songwriter, then pauses with a laugh before saying “I know. That’s a very vague description.”

Admittedly, music has always been a part of her life. As the daughter of Vince and Janis Gill (of Sweethearts of the Rodeo), it’s a part of her inner fabric. She recalls that her dad wasn’t home that much after “When I Call Your Name” set his star ablaze in 1990, but credits him with providing for the family. “We never wanted for anything,” she allows.

Her father also gave her a first taste of recording, as she appears on “Let There Be Peace On Earth,” the title cut from his 1993 Christmas album. What goes through her mind when listening to that track now – almost a quarter-century later?

“It always brings joy to me when I hear it,” she says. “I remember my nerves –  how nervous I was to do that session. I just didn’t want to make some kind of mistake or have someone was going to laugh at me. Everyone was so kind and gentle. I felt like they got the sweetest vocal out of me, I was so proud of it,” she says, confessing that she still feels butterflies before performing today. “Those nerves are still there. I still get real nervous when I’m about to sing something.”

One track that is very personal to the singer is “Your Shadow,” which she describes as “the most vulnerable, real, and authentic song I’ve ever written.

“It was hard to expose that much of myself,” she continues. “I wrote it with Deanna Walker and Rick Beresford, a couple who are dear friends of mine that I would trust with anything. It felt like a therapy session when I was stretched out on their couch, blabbering about what it feels like to be invisible. She started jotting away in her notebook. The next day, I came back, and she had these beautiful chords. She sang a little bit of it to me, and I was so excited to finish the thought. I thought it was something I would never be able to write. I wouldn’t have been able to do it by myself.”

After she began work on the song, she played it for Amy Grant, who encouraged her to play the song at her live performances. “I was traveling with her somewhere in Illinois at a benefit, and she told me she really wanted me to do it. When I did, I was really surprised by the positive feedback I got from the audience. I figured out that it was more universal than I ever anticipated it would be because it came from such a specific place. But, you don’t have to be famous to take up a lot of space in a room or have that thing that people gravitate to. Lots of people possess that quality, and to related to that, and to be constantly overlooked, it can wear on you. Hopefully, others can relate to it too.”

Jenny Gill; Cover art courtesy Morris Public Relations

Another track that is a highlight from the EP is the stirring “Whiskey Words,” of which she says, “That song was one of the first ones I ever finished. I was working at a publishing company, and I was about to leave. This writer was signing, and we decided to write something together. Her name is Andi Zak. She came into the session, and said ‘I was in a bar last night, and this girl did nothing but whiskey talk.’ I was trying to be really poetic, so I said ‘Could we try ‘Whiskey Words?’ We just went from there. It felt easy to write because I felt comfortable with her. I just thought about the ex-boyfriends in my life. I’m not saying there’s a ton, but there were a couple that I really liked that did me wrong. I just kind of pulled from that.”

The song is definitely one of the more traditional in sound, which she attributes to her father, who produced the disc. “Dad’s love of traditional Country can definitely be heard in that track. I didn’t try to stop him from going in that direction. I think that any kind of style that you put on that would have made it cool. “

Taking their family ties out of the equation, what does Vince Gill the producer bring to the table? She doesn’t hesitate. “He’s such a professional, and musicians really respect him. He is one. The way he can lead a group of musicians is so seamless. He also has good ideas. He knows how to edit. If I try to get too fancy and sing too many notes, he can reel me in. I’m not one of those vocalists who does all those gymnastics. I really wanted this project to be all about the songs. Everyone that works with him, I can assure you, is scared to death. Amy jokes that he only hears notes that dogs can hear because he is so zoned in. Everyone just wants the nod of approval. It can be scary, but I am so pleased with the vocals that he got from me. He was so patient with me. He’s always searching for something great. We will work to get something great before he will make an engineer fix something that you can’t do. He will get it out of you,” she says proudly.

Having just released the EP, Gill is hoping that the music finds its’ audience. “It’s just me right now, and my PR team. I don’t have a booking agent or a manager. I’m just flying by the seat of my pants. The moment that I put expectations on myself of any kind of success, it’s going to screw it all up. I just want to see how the dominoes fall. I’m trying to line up some good gigs this year – which is hard to coordinate with a two-year old. I’m just going to see what I can book and figure it out from there. Maybe a team at some company will get what I’m trying to do, and want to be a part of it.”

She’s quick to say that she’s not expecting success to come easy, and even though she had some famous bloodlines, she hopes her music will stand on its’ own. “I realize that nobody is going to come to me. I have to do it myself. Having my son really inspired me to do something. Thank God we have tools where artists can do it by ourselves. I just want my sounds out there, and hopefully, they will get noticed. I don’t claim to be special or better than anyone. I just want to help and support my friends who are doing the same thing that I am. We’re just trying to help each other. That’s what Nashville is all about.”